37 Shitty Vinyl Records That Are Worth More Than Your Rent

The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are considered to be two of the greatest vinyl albums ever recorded, but you can easily find used copies of each on eBay for about $5—or even less! That’s because popular albums aren’t usually worth very much—millions of them were pressed and most of the people who bought them kept them.

On the other hand, a near-mint condition copy of a crappy 1968 Pet Sounds rip-off album called Would You Believe by Billy Nicholls can fetch over $10,000 from willing collectors. That’s because only 100 copies of it were printed and it’s possible that most of those were thrown in the garbage after one listen.

Here, ranked in order from most to least expensive, are super-lame yet super-rare vinyl LPs that cost more than your monthly rent. These prices are rough estimates based on average resale value according to latest trends. And in every case, although you may be paying for rarity or “collectability,” you are definitely NOT paying for musical quality.

1. $9,250

Would YOU believe that some people would rather pay for this album than buy a new car? Billy Nicholls tries his hardest to sound like Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys and fails as hard as possible. This album is a total wipeout, but since only 100 copies were pressed, it’s like finding a rare jewel. If you must risk its value by playing it, I recommend doing so with the speakers disconnected.

2. $8,500

The record industry is so corrupt that label owners will often launch subsidiary labels that are designed to lose a lot of money as part of a tax scam to avoid paying taxes for their more successful label. This obscure slab of steaming crap from 1976 has been called “the holy grail of ‘tax scam’ records.” After less than a minute of listening to this meandering mess, you’ll be offering someone thousands of dollars just to stop it from playing.

4. $5,500

5. $5,500

Very rare psychedelic album from Mexico. Based on the cover alone, you are guaranteed to have a bad trip.

6. $5,200

Speed, Glue & ShinkiSpeed, Glue & Shinki (1972)

This Japanese power trio featured one member who liked to do amphetamines, another who liked to sniff glue to get high, and then guitarist Shinki Chen, AKA “The Japanese Jimi Hendrix.” With or without Shinki, you can rest assured that this record is stinky.

11. $3,750

12. $3,750

Only 99 copies of this were pressed, because at the time in England, you had to pay taxes on any album runs of 100 or more. This is a psychedelic album about a relationship that went sour, and it’s about as fun as being dumped while peaking on LSD.

16. $3,250

If you’re willing to forgo having your car’s engine rebuilt in order to snag one of the fewer than 50 copies that were pressed by this garage band in Iowa, I question your judgement—not only about music, but about life.

27. $2,250

Fewer than 1,000 copies of this were pressed in Italy. The only thing of note is that the keyboard player was 68 years old when it was recorded. And this is a band that plays like it has one foot in the grave already.

28. $2,250

29. $2,000

About fifty copies of this “experimental” LP were produced, ostensibly distributed as microaggressions to all their friends, all of whom ostensibly ceased being their friends the minute they listened to this. In this case, the “experiment” failed miserably.